There were three study abroad programs to China in the summer of 2009. One was through the School of Journalism and two were through Chinese Studies - one to study Chinese language, the other to study the ecology and minorities of western and southern China. The following is on this last program.

In the summer of 2009, Professor Gregory Ruf’s anthropological excursion through rural and urban parts of China, which began in Beijing and continued west to Sichuan and south to Yunnan before concluding in Shanghai, gave several Stony Brook University students the chance to experience a part of China most Chinese citizens, let alone tourists, never see. It was a learning experience for all involved.

Since intense quarantine rules were in effect due to the H1N1 flu pandemic, Professor Ruf had departed for China several days ahead of the students to make sure their reception would encounter as few snags as possible. When they arrived, they met in Beijing with another Stony Brook group who had just completed a language program. The opportunity to interact with other students helped Professor Ruf’s team get some practical advice on how to navigate this foreign experience. It was nice to have the language group meet the students in order to “show the ropes to people just off the plane,” as Professor Ruf said.

Given that the tour was within the context of a ‘Study Abroad’ program, the students each chose a research topic relevant to the trip and were also required to submit another piece of writing describing their personal experience and lessons learned.  

Logistics such as transport were often delegated to a local Chinese tour guide. On the SUNY side, the Office of International Academic Programs rules and regulations left nothing to the imagination - students were even well-fed because it was specifically required that they eat three meals each day.

The early portion of the trip took place in Beijing where students visited, among other sites, the “Temple of Heaven” pictured above This temple carries significance in the meaning of its structural appearance and shape. Unlike other Chinese temples, which often have four walls and are square, the Temple of Heaven is round. Although Beijing had many classical tourist attractions, the group found that the crowds of Chinese and other international tourists, especially at the height of tourist season, made these visits difficult to manage. Even a Tibetan monastery at the other end of the country where there was a commemoration to the Yellow Hat Sect, waves of internal and foreign tourists seemed to take away ownership of the experience.

Nevertheless, other portions of the tour taught valuable cultural lessons. A visit to Xi’an was one that added yet another dimension to the study abroad program. The diversity of the people of Xi’an matched the diversity that was visible in its architecture. The way the Chinese society had imported the religion was evident in the Chinese style of mosque architecture, particularly at the Great Mosque of Xi’an, which was constructed during the Tang period and refined further in later periods. Many Muslim Chinese (Hui Muslims) living in Xi’an actively use this temple as a place to practice religion.

After Xi'an the group moved to the city of Zhongwei located in Ningxia province. Here they visited a massive feat of architecture – the High Temple (gao miao), a structure that was built during the Ming dynasty and later renovated during the Qing dynasty.

The true highlights of the trip for both Professor Ruf and his students were in the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan, where Professor Ruf had performed field research during the earlier portion of his career in anthropology and Asian studies. In the suburbs, Professor Ruf had intended to find the old town where he once did field research. He noticed a new development where he had expected to find the old town but he quickly discovered that the old town was at the bottom of the hill. A heartwarming scene welcomed them – there was a big banquet for a girl who passed an entrance exam and would soon be leaving her hometown for university life.

When local residents of the old Bai Ma township recognized Professor Ruf, they asked about his students and were curious why he came back. The students had never felt so many eyes watching them. He explained the purpose of the trip and the residents couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that they had been grouped with tourist attractions like the Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, and the Great Mosque of Xi’an. They were especially entertained because, as reported by their elders, Westerners hadn’t really shown much of an interest in their area. While two GIs had been sent to set up a small airport in a neighboring county in 1938, these people experienced virtually no interactions with outsiders otherwise. Yet here they were with an entire pack of Western students coming to visit and investigate the cultural anthropology of the lesser-known Chinese.

The students next visited Yunnan, a province known for having had much of its nature and scenery preserved. Lijiang, located in the northwestern section of Yunnan, is particularly picturesque. Tent-like structures called yurts housed them overnight just as yurts routinely do for many rural people in Yunnan. If they could sleep in a yurt with yaks outside, they could sleep anywhere, some of the students said. Similarly, Qinghai’s grasslands “gave a sense of the immediacy of nature,” Professor Ruf said. As in Xi’an, Qinghai’s relatively high presence of Chinese Muslims helped to demonstrate the ethnic diversity of the Chinese that is so often unknown to outsiders.

Overall, the trip was a success. Students said that for the next offering of this program, however, less time should be spent in the big cities and more time should be spent per site in order to add depth to their interactions with each site. The students also truly enjoyed complementing their daily educational activities with nightly visits and adventures inside the local towns.

Here is a link to Jack Xiang's article about this trip:
http://www.aaezine.org/articles/vol22/22N3StudyAbroadXiang.shtml

And here is a link to the pre-trip article that describes it in more detail:
http://www.aaezine.org/articles/vol21/21N5GregRuf.shtml

Study Abroad website: http://www.stonybrook.edu/studyabroad/